Tourist places in Odisha to have toilet

Bhubaneswar: In view of difficulties faced by tourists for toilet in tourist destinations in the state, Odisha Tourism department has decided to construct toilet and provide other basic facilities including drinking water.

We are preparing a template to improve the infrastructure of tourist places and decision will be taken after meeting with the Panchayatiraj department, said Tourism Director Nitin Bhanudas Jawale.

Many tourist places have toilet facility. As these have been damaged due to lack of maintenance, these are not in condition for use. While the tourism department is spending 14-20% from its budget, new initiative will be taken for properly managing and maintaining the system, Jawale said.

While the local public is in charge of managing the toilet, the Drinking Water and Sanitation wing of Odisha Panchayatiraj department will monitor the toilets in tourist places, he added.

In view of recent incident in which an Italian tourist faced trouble after booking a guest house online, the tourism department has asked all the guest houses in the state for registration.

Earlier, there was a guideline for registering the guest houses with the government. However, a team will be formed to expedite the registration process to strictly follow the guideline, said Jawale adding that different home stay and hotels will also be included in the process.

As 20 tourist destinations have been declared as ‘No selfie zone’, the process for constructing barricade is in progress. The barricade will be made in the tourist places including Machh Kund, Sana Ghagara, Bada Ghagara, Chilika, Bhitarkanika, Khandagiri and Udaygiri.